With imagery depicting beautiful apocalyptic chaos and the loftiness woven within the machine aesthetic, all of which is in turn, deeply entrenched in folklore, mysticism, and religion, one encounters a time capsule from the past in Mehreen Murtaza’s series of present new works titled “Crisis Apparitions.”The work focuses on subjects such as conspiracy theories, religous cult, geographical phenomena, and our propensity to justify through unambiguous allusions to the miraculous. Murtaza constructs a transversal narrative by taking the position of the archaeologist- archivist. In her work, invisible architectures are relayed through trace and evidence, thereby making visible and perceptible, both the geography of an area and the invisible geometries sustaining it - thus, evoking transient occupations of space, shifting boundaries, structures of community and the like.Murtaza conceives a 'ghost story' that explores the question of why most of our enlightenment and irrational capabilities are regularly ascribed to the technologies of a given time - for instance, the ability to act as a channel for messages from the beyond.

MEHREEN MURTAZA b. 1986, Riyadh, KSAMehreen Murtaza’s visual narratives intertwine a traditional background with popular culture. Taking their imagery from both Sufi culture and the skewed logic of science fiction, her labour-intensive digital collages and 3 dimensional works are a virtual world that fuses the natural with the mechanical, where technology plays the role of challenging religious myth, superstition and ritual.Born in 1986, Murtaza lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan. She has participated in residencies and workshops with Gasworks,UK, VASL, the German Cultural Centre in Lahore and Khoj, New Delhi and has exhibited work in Pakistan and abroad including; Jam Jar gallery Dubai, Cartwright Hall Bradford, Herbert Gallery and Museum Coventry, Experimenter Kolkata, Asia House London and Al Hamra Centre Lahore.